White House Admits it Should Have Sent Higher-Ranking Official to Anti-Terror Rally

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Monday's cover of the New York Daily News (pictured) criticized the White House for not sending US President Barack Obama, or other senior American officials, to the unity rally against terrorism in Paris on Sunday. Photo: New York Daily News.

JNS.org – The White House on Monday admitted that it made a mistake by not sending a higher-ranking official to Paris for Sunday’s unity rally against terrorism.

More than 40 heads of state attended the rally and marched together through the streets of Paris in solidarity with France after last week’s three Islamist terrorist attacks, which killed a combined 17 people. America was represented by US Ambassador to France Jane Hartley, rather than President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, or Secretary of State John Kerry.

“It is fair to say we should have sent someone with a higher profile,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Monday.

Earnest said the White House did not have enough time to address the “significant security challenges” that would have accompanied Obama’s participation in the march.

In a statement, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) called it “a disgrace” that the US was “essentially absent” from “the most important international protest in history against the frightening and expanding scourge of Islamic terrorism.” ZOA also noted Obama’s record of refusing to use the term “Islamic terrorism” in favor of more general terms such as “violent extremism.”